Ch 16 – Invisible Enemy 

"Fuck," Kaleido muttered while bandaging a wound on his body with a sigh. Looking around the cave he was in, he sighs and tightened the bandage around his grievous wounds.

"Why do those fucking beast emperors keep coming out of nowhere?" he asked while activating Space Bubble Gu and taking out an apple. Biting into it, he found that he couldn't even enjoy its juicy and sweet taste due to the constant stream of misfortunate that came his way.

Just these past few days alone, he faced a beast emperor, no, multiple beast emperors every single day whenever he goes out of hiding and gets closer to Lo Clan City. It was already lucky that he only faced three beast emperors today because he even faced five different beast emperors on his fourth day of traveling.

Letting out an annoyed sigh, he ate more and more to bring nutrients into his body and let his miraculous body heal itself. Even without a healing type Gu, Kaleido still had his ridiculous body that would heal itself in a few hours with enough nutrition and food intake.

"Why is this happening?" Kaleido questioned while eating. For him, his situation was just too ridiculous.

Even if he had the worst luck possible, this was simply too much and too consistent. If he does have bad luck, then he would have faced more than beast emperors but calamities too like tornados and earthquakes, but no, it was all fucking beast emperors for poor little Kaleido.

'I thought that those two cranes back then were simply a random occurrence, but the more time passes, the stronger the beast emperors get! Even those three monkey beast emperors I fought back then all had Rank 5 Gu, and managing to defeat them was truly a miracle on my part.' Kaleido's body shuddered as he remembered the fierce fight a few hours ago.

From his perspective, it was as if there was an invisible enemy hell-bent on killing him, but that should be impossible because if it was indeed true, then his enemy would be an immortal already who is far beyond the mortal realm and was more than capable of controlling multiple beast emperors. If the invisible enemy does want to kill him, why would it go to the excruciating method of beast emperors and not just use their raw power to overwhelm him directly?

Kaleido was a smart boy, that's a given fact already considering he managed to pass the entrance exam for Seoul High. When coincidences happen too frequently, Kaleido started to become suspicious and slowly started to see a puzzle completely veiled in darkness, and he only has a few clues gathered to try and piece together a small part of this puzzle.

He sighed once again and ate more and more.

'The longer it takes for me to get to Lo Clan City, then perhaps the enemies I would have to face would get stronger in return. If that's the case, then the longer I wait here, the more I'll suffer!' Kaleido's eyes gleamed and he ate faster and faster.

'If it really is like that, then the faster I move, the safer it would be! That means I'll have to quickly avoid any direct conflict with the beast emperors and rush towards Lo Clan City if I want to get out of here without allowing the enemy to grow stronger…' Kaleido paused and continued in his mind: 'If there even is an enemy that exists in the first place.'

Knowing that the circumstances were more dangerous than he initially thought now that he decided to think deeper into the situation, he ate more and more before suddenly disappearing with a pop. In the next moment, Kaleido opened his eyes and found himself back in the mystical space cave once again!

Countless Gu Worms filled his 'vision' and he felt a bit entranced by the sheer amount of them, but he quickly calmed himself and swiftly looked at the area with a certain intention in mind. 'There!'

His body moved at lightning speeds without hesitation, charging directly toward the countless Gu in the area. Sensing his presence, the myriad of Gu went to attack him, but he teleported forward while activating Formless Barrier Gu in tandem.

Loud and bright explosions filled the area, but he swiftly moved without pause. He ignored the countless attacks charging toward him and tanked through them all, until finally…

'I'm here!' Kaleido shouted deep within him and manipulated his formless barrier to form a hand. With a push of his arm, the invisible hand went to extend outward and grab at a certain bush where motes of light moved around from one place to another.

With a swift series of actions, the void black space bubble appeared floating beside him, and he dragged the bush into his space bubble. But as he did so, some of the motes of light were repulsed by the membrane of the space bubble and fell to the ground. Kaleido ignored them and with a single thought, he disappeared from the area as the black markings on his body shone brightly.

In the next moment, Kaleido appeared back at the cave he was previously resting on and dropped to the ground with a rapidly beating heart. He dropped to the floor and lets out a sigh of relief, muttering with traces of shock: "Just before I manage to get out of space cave, I sensed the auras of those mysterious entities once again. Their mere aura alone almost caused me to puke…"

As if realizing something, Kaleido's body shuddered and he thought to himself: 'If those entities are something like beasts… then what if this hypothetical enemy of mine can control them and make them kill me? While I do have the confidence of killing any Rank 5 beings out there, when it comes to those things, then it would be full of uncertainty.'

Letting out a turbid sigh, he instead swept his consciousness into his space bubble and saw the bush full of dark purple leaves along with a certain Gu on it.

'Ha! A bush filled with Space Step Gu!' Kaleido grinned and swiftly took out a Space Step Gu.

In the next moment, he moved his primeval essence and refined the Gu in mere seconds. Doing the same for all of the remaining Space Step Gu, he stares at his aperture filled with multiple Space Step Gu, and his eyes glimmered with brilliance.

'Now the only thing left is for me to rest, and if things go as expected, I'll be able to reach Lo Clan City without any beast emperor being able to catch me.' Kaleido moved his body into a sleeping position.

Taking out a makeshift pillow created with clothes and leaves from his space bubble, he laid his head on it and closed his eyes. 'Due to the mysterious nature of this body, I only need a few hours of sleep to fully rest. Okay, once I wake up, it will be a rush to see who would win. Would beasts overwhelm me, or would I reach Lo Clan City first?'

Calming himself for tomorrow, he slowly fell into the land of sleep and silence ensued.

***

At the very break of dawn, a pair of heterochromatic eyes opened inside a random dark cave. Without any shred of hesitation, his body moved swiftly as if by pure instinct. Swoosh, his body disappeared with a burst of void black light.

In the sky, a shadowy figure suddenly appeared. With constant bursts of void black light, the shadowy figure appears from one place to another in mere moments without pause. The distance between each point slowly became larger, from more than a hundred steps to hundreds of steps, until eventually, the figure disappeared and reappeared more than a thousand steps away each time a burst of black light appears.

"RAAA!" a ginormous fiery red fox jumped out of nowhere from a random cave in the ground. From its open mouth, a pillar of red flames flew shot toward the shadowy figure in the sky.

"Stop getting in my way you fucking pests!" Kaleido shouted and with a swing of his void black knife, a void black line that slashed the fabric of space itself appeared on the ginormous fiery fox's body, splitting it into two.

Watching the fiery fox die and explode into flames, Kaleido disappeared quickly without pause. In a way, the constant fights he had to face these past few days contributed to increasing his combat skills and familiarity with his killer move—Displaced Slash. Now, he can activate it without much hassle and has a higher chance of succeeding in using it.

And as his knowledge of fighting grew, the more he understood that the faster the enemy dies, the better it was for him, and displaced slash was the best weapon for that.

He continued to teleport from one place to another in the sky. Every few intervals, more and more beast emperors start to appear to obstruct Kaleido. But he powered through them and unleashed fatal blows without stopping.

"VOID SLASH!" He roared furiously and swung the towering void black blade in the sky downward.

Ahead of him, the beast emperors seemed to have been awoken from a trance and their bloodlust eyes disappeared and were instead replaced by fear. But it was too late for them, the apocalyptic blow by Kaleido was already in front of them, and they were unable to dodge it.

Just like that, multiple beast emperors died like flies, and Kaleido kept moving forward. Multiple Space Step Gu already died inside his aperture from being overexerted by the constant usage, but he was more than prepared for this.

'Just a little more!' Kaleido cried out inside his mind and hastened his speed. His mind was already exhausted from having to constantly teleport from one place to another, but he doesn't want to stop, no, he can't stop!

If he did, then he would be overwhelmed by countless beast emperors at a moment's notice.

Forward! He just needs to keep moving forward without stopping! Even if a beast emperor comes to obstruct him, he would charge ahead fearlessly and deal with it in a single blow!

At this moment, he was even more than willing to go head-to-head with a hundred beast emperors as rage and bloodlust filled his mind.

On the far horizon, he saw a group of bird beast emperors fly towards him at breakneck speeds. Some were fiery red, some were covered in a field of lightning, and some let out bright yellow light and shone like the sun.

"DIE!" Kaleido rushed ahead and swung his knife multiple times. In the far distance, void black lines appeared at the bodies of the bird beast emperors, and they dropped to the ground as blood rained from the sky.

He teleported madly, not even bothering to get his loot, and left them to dye the ground and forest scarlet red. Even if his body ache, even if he felt his muscle tear and his mind explode, he still kept moving forward.

'Fuck that invisible enemy, fuck this goddamn "rare" beast emperors. Fuck heaven and earth! I'm gonna kill you all if you want to stop me!' Kaleido growled.

Finally, through the boundless forest, he finally saw the thing he was wanting to see for weeks—Lo Clan City.

He felt his body relax and mind calm down, and as he fell to the ground, the beast emperors also promptly disappeared.

In the next moment, through the dense trees and endless green foliage, a snow-white hand covered in black and white markings appeared. From the seemingly boundless forest, a cloaked figure appeared.

He wore a big black cloak covering his head to toe, but from the shadow of his hood, one can see a pair of heterochromatic eyes colored black and white. A mysterious air can be felt from the mysterious figure as he walked toward the gate of Lo Clan City.

AN: This chapter has 2012 words.

You should already know who his "enemy" is if you have read far enough into Reverend Insanity.

Anyways, I'm gonna go on an intense self-coping session a few weeks later to rewire my brain and the way I perceive myself for a little experiment regarding my mental health and joy about life.

Remember to send power stones, comment your thoughts, and save to library to follow the novel, ciao~

(December 27, 2022 – 397th day of writing)